Southern left stranded against LaPlata, 10-2
LA PLATA — It’s hard to say how differently the game would have played out had Southern been able to take advantage of some early opportunities in Saturday’s Class 2A South Region final at LaPlata.
The Bulldogs left four runners in scoring position in the first three innings, while LaPlata got its bats going in the third and scored runs in four straight innings and defeated Southern in the region final for the second straight year, 10-2.
“We had runners in scoring position a few times, just couldn’t get that hit that we needed,” Southern coach Kyle Lynch said. “LaPlata is a good team. They’re solid fundamentally, and they showed it today.”
After Brady Waters was left stranded on second base in the top of the first, the Bulldogs put runners on second and third with two out in the second. LaPlata’s standout freshman pitcher, Ryan Calvert, got out of the first inning with two strikeouts and struck out the side in the second around a Richard Cosgrove single and Casey Marshall reaching on an error. Southern also had a runner on second in the fourth, but again could not score.
“We talked before the game about getting an early lead,” Lynch said. “We felt if we could get the early lead, it could shift the momentum in our favor. We just couldn’t that hit when we needed to.”
Southern starter Brendan Benito kept the Warriors off the board the first two innings, but they scored two runs in each of the next three innings and added four more in the bottom of the sixth. Benito left after 3 2/3 innings, while Brady Waters, Hayden Buhaj and Noah McCowan combined to pitch the final 2 1/3.
Southern’s Kyle Waters hit a solo home run in the top of the fifth to cut LaPlata’s lead to 4-1, but the Warriors answered with two more in the bottom of the inning. LaPlata took a 10-1 lead to the top of the seventh, where the Bulldogs plated their final run on an RBI single from Kyle Germann that scored Marshall.
Cosgrove singled, walked, reached on an error and stole a pair of bases, Brady Waters had a pair of hits and stole a base and Kyle Waters, Germann, and Marshall each reached base twice for Southern.
Southern finished 9-8 in the county despite fielding a young team after graduating nine last year.
“From the beginning of the season to now, they’ve really done a great job,” Lynch said. “I’m really looking forward to what we’re going to bring back next year. They’ll learn from this and they’ll be better next year.”
Calvert, LaPlata’s ace, went six innings, gave up one run on three hits, struck out 11 and walked two. The Warriors, who won the Class 2A state title last year, will face Middletown in Tuesday’s state semifinals at Harford Community College.
“In high school baseball, if you can get a lead and make the other team play with pressure, it turns into a different game,” LaPlata coach John Childers said. “It was big for him to make those big pitches when they had guys on base.”